Signal does not have a large enough userbase to threaten something like this. EU will just shrug and move on.
Hard disagree. Politicians use Signal themselves for their private group chats.
This is the right choice.
Anywhere to petition or digitally sign?
Canary coal mine kind of signal (pardon the pun)
Edit: they also obviously do not have a choice. If they legally must weaken their work and the core of their work is that it's not weak... then they have no work. So they can't accept it.
I always threaten to pull out, but I never do
Dumbass. Always pull out. And wear a condom.
This is what I always say to myself when reading the Japanese porno mags.
I can smell the STIs
🧐
For a future with privacy, not mass surveillance, Germany must stand firmly against client-side scanning in the Chat Control proposal [PDF - Statement from Meredith Whittaker, President, Signal Foundation]
I don't understand how this "threat" is supposed to work. If the law passes won't any and all chat encryption be affected? In that case it doesn't matter how you get the app, or if you manage to get it in europe. Its encryption will be broken/unavailable.
Laws don't magically break encryption. I'm not sure what you're trying to say.
They're trying to force Signal to weaken the application, Signal says they won't do it.
They can ban Signal for not complying, but you know how difficult it is to ban a digital application? It might make it more popular since it'll be one of very few actually secure messaging apps out there.
I imagined the law would be enforced by a deal with google and some global android state approved keylogger/backdoor completely bypassing all apps including Signal. But yeah, I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around this.
Recently Google announced they were going to restrict certified Android devices to only allowing apps approved by Google. An F-Droid member found references to "blocked developers" in the new verification code. It's not unreasonable to assume that this developer blocklist could be region-dependent and Google could use this ability to block Signal from being installed in EU.
I suspect that signal will be asked to add a backdoor to their encryption, they will refuse and subsequently banned from EU app stores.
banned from EU app stores
What even is that? Aren't the 2 app official app stores American anyway?
Yes they are based in america but they have to comply with regional laws since they operate internationally. the apps available in these stores, and the laws that apply to them, differ per country.
If I understood correctly "they" here means Google and Apple because they are corporations that sell products, advertisement brokerage, SaaS, physical devices, etc in the EU. They have to comply otherwise they wouldn't be able to make money if one of the most profitable markets. They solely chose to comply because it puts their baseline at risk, not solely because of regional laws.
Shocker. I do however wonder what prevents someone from downloading and installing the apk to their phone. Am I wrong in believing this is a real way to bypass them leaving a market?
what prevents someone from downloading and installing the apk to their phone
google.
https://www.androidsage.com/2025/08/26/google-blocks-sideloading-of-android-apps/
So first step is installing an alternative phone OS then.
yeah, except according to my understanding of the topic, there is not much adult alternatives. graphene will have the same problem.
If you are running Android Open Source Project without Google Play Services, Google has no control. However, manufacturers could be pressured into locking bootloaders and then no one gets AOSP or GrapheneOS at all.
You can move to WiFi tablets then. The hostile network boundary would then begin on your MiFi router.
Doesn't Signal work with phone numbers? They will probably block every EU number from accessing the service to protect themselves legally. Maybe you could use something like jmp.chat to circumvent that? Probably need a VPN as well to mask your IP. In any case, it will decimate the user base, so you're left chatting with yourself anyway.
To my understanding, you just need a phone number to make an account. I think it can be a burner number. But then if you ever lose access to the account you can't recover it.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
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